![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() A parallel can be drawn with the comments of a patient, Rebecca, who believes that doctors focus on the diagnosis and treatment of what is lost, to the detriment of what is retained-a lesson we are yet to learn.Īn interesting case is that of Dr P, who has a visual agnosia. Sacks ponders on the “privative” language of neurology, how “deficit is its favourite word” and how it struggles when conceptualising an excess, rather than a loss, of function. Despite the book being more than 22 years old and with some terms that would now be considered pejorative, the stories and their messages remain important. Neurology is a fascinating and forbidding subject in equal measure, and the author guides the reader on a path to surreal and “unimaginable lands,” thanks to a combination of mellifluous prose and vivid imagery. between them arriving at new insights and treatment.” ![]() The book is divided into four thematic parts: “Losses,” “Excesses,” “Transports,” and “The world of the simple.” I discovered it in the sixth form, and it inspired me to study medicine and to practise-like Sacks-in the manner of James Purdon Martin, in which “patient and physician were co-equals. It is this collection of case reports, however, that I consider to be his finest work. Oliver Sacks describes himself as a “physician and naturalist,” and as he has written on matters as disparate as ferns, the periodic table, and encephalitis lethargica I am inclined to agree. ![]()
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